Advances in data capture, storage, and communication technologies have made vast amounts of data, including multimedia data, available to both commercial and non-commercial, i.e., individual, customers. Advances in processing power and increases in communication bandwidth have made the downloading of multimedia data, primarily over the Internet, more practical and prevalent. Many Internet computer software applications, such as media player software applications, provide customers easy access to multimedia data, i.e., audio-visual data, such as movies and music. The same and/or other computer software applications, such as electronic mail (e-mail) and data download software applications, facilitate the downloading of the software components required by a receiving computing device to receive multimedia and other types of data. As a result of the above-mentioned advances, the downloading of multimedia and other types of data via communication networks, such as the Internet, has become prolific.
In addition to the downloading of multimedia and other data (referred to as content) to desktop and laptop type computing devices, content is frequently downloaded to other types of computing devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cellular telephones, for example.
Many individuals have more than one computing device, each designed for a different purpose, that are in communication over the Internet as well as other networks, depending on the use of the computing device. For example, a person employed by a business may have a desktop computing device in the office and/or a laptop computing device for use when traveling, plus a PDA and a cellular telephone. The same individual may have a desktop and/or a laptop computing device at home as well as his or her own personal PDA and cellular telephone. In many instances, all of these computing devices are capable of communicating with one another via the Internet.
When the downloading of multimedia or other data is desired, a user creates an Internet connection between the computing device that is to receive the download (commonly called a client computing device) and a Web server that stores the data. Typically, the connection is made using a Web browser. After the connection is made, the data is delivered to the client computing device requesting the data. While such downloading is satisfactory in some circumstances, it may not be in other circumstances. For users who have access to multiple computing devices, it is often advantageous to use one computing device to request that multimedia data and/or software be downloaded to a different computing device. For example, a user at work may become aware of a movie or music of interest to the user. In the past it would have been necessary for the user to access the computing device to which the user wants to download the movie or music. If the computing device is the user's home computer, in the past, the user has had to wait until arriving home to make the required connection, and then wait for the movie, music or other data to be downloaded. Even with the advances and processing power that have occurred, downloading time, particularly with respect to movies or other large audio-video data files, can be extremely time consuming. Thus, it would be advantageous for users to be able to use one computing device to request the downloading of various types of content, such as audio-video data files (movies, music, etc.), software, etc., to another computing device to which the user has no immediate access.